ABSTRACT
The practice of sharing family photographs is as old as the camera itself. Many mothers now share baby photos online, yet little is known about what kinds of baby photos they share and their motivations for doing so. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 22 new mothers, we find that they share cute, funny, milestone, and family and friend photos but refrain from sharing crying and naked photos. While some mothers harbor concerns about controlling information, oversharing, and digital footprints, the benefits of receiving validation outweighs their concerns. Sharing baby photos on Facebook helps new mothers enact and receive validation of "good mothering." However, mothers are charged with the responsibility of stewarding their children's privacy and identities online. We introduce the concept of privacy stewardship to describe the responsibility parents take on when deciding what is appropriate to share about their children online and ensuring that family and friends respect and maintain the integrity of those rules. As a result, mothers must exchange benefits of sharing baby photos with risks of creating digital footprints for their child.
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Index Terms
- The Modern Day Baby Book: Enacting Good Mothering and Stewarding Privacy on Facebook
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